


Changeling Nelson Tethers

by RoseBloodCat



Category: Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent, Puzzle Agent (Video Games)
Genre: Changeling Nelson, Changeling Nelson Tethers, magic nelson, nonhuman Nelson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22820626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseBloodCat/pseuds/RoseBloodCat
Summary: If he had to pick a point where everything started, where the first signs had made themselves known, Nelson would say he had no idea. But, after thinking for a bit, he would say it started with a toothache.Nelson transforming into something not-quite-human and having no idea why or how.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Changeling Nelson Tethers

**Author's Note:**

> *Kicks in door* Alright! I’ve finally finished the short/story!
> 
> It’s not terribly long, and I tried to make the events of the two games (and the time between) seem a but more stretched out. You know, to seem more realistic?
> 
> But the main focus was Nelson going through his transformations (and the build up to each change) without too much focus on what happens in the games. As in, the story isn’t a play-by-play of what happened in them. So it doesn’t spoil anything for people who haven’t had the chance to play/watch the games.
> 
> I hope people like it, and if you have ideas for more stuff I could write for this, feel free to tell me. As either an ask or a comment/reply to the this post.

If he had to pick a point where everything started, where the first signs had made themselves known, Nelson would say he had no idea. But, after thinking for a bit, he would say it started with a toothache.

It started just before (or maybe just after?) was told about his field assignment in Scoggins, Minnesota. At first, it had been little more than a faint pressure in his back molars. Almost as if he’d been gritting his teeth for too long without knowing it. The sort where you’d stop letting your teeth press together for a while, and it would go away. But it didn’t.

Instead, the ache seemed to spread slowly. Until the whole of his mouth was throbbing dully. At that point, it wasn’t painful, but it was notable. Enough that he was planning to schedule a dentist’s appointment to figure what was going on in there. Chewing on gum made it easier to ignore, resulting in him working his way through packs at a much faster rate than he usually would. A habit that quickly became a problem when he arrived in Scoggins.

During his stay in the small town, his fingers began to ache as well. At first, the agent had thought it was due to the note-taking and snowmobile riding he’d been doing on the case and had dismissed it. (Nevermind that he would usually spend his entire day gripping a pencil while solving puzzles in his office.)

But, like the toothache, the ache got worse instead of better.

And then the Gnomes appeared, causing his annoying aches to shift into spikes of _pain._ Complete with a brand new pulse of pain from his lower back. The alarm (and pain) had almost driven Nelson from town then and there.

It probably _would_ have sent him away, if the Innkeeper hadn’t mentioned that the Sheriff had told her to let him know when Nelson left. Not _if_ he left, but _when._ He had no idea what had made the man think he would leave, and so soon after he’d arrived in town. Something didn’t feel right about that.

Something that the FBI agent found suspicious enough to change his mind.

So he swallowed back the aches and pains (along with some extra strength aspirin) and trooped back out into the cold, snow-covered town to solve the case and get the factory going again. Just like he was sent there to do.

And once he’d gotten the factory open and running again, Nelson returned home with notable pains and an unsatisfying end to his field mission. He couldn’t get his mind off of what had transpired, or what he had seen.

Yes, he’d succeeded as far as the FBI was concerned. But the factory foreman was missing, and now he knew of impossible things. He couldn’t just leave it at that.

That was when the first significant sign of change made itself known.

Nelson had been in his office, trying to solve a crossword puzzle and get his mind off of Scoggins, when he bit into his chicken sandwich and felt something hard in his mouth. Something that was _not_ food. He froze mid-chew.

That was not part of his lunch.

He used his tongue to carefully shift the hard _thing_ to the front of his mouth, and, lifting a hand, he pulled it out. He stared in disbelief when he pulled away enough for him to see.

That was a tooth. A back molar, if his memory was right.

He swallowed his mouthful of chicken, which suddenly didn’t taste as appetizing as it had before.

One of his teeth had just come out. His tooth had just _fallen_ out.

He was too old for his teeth to be falling out. He was starting to shake.

He carefully slipped a pair of fingers into his mouth and brushed them along his gums, trying to find which molar had come out. It was the bottom, back molar, on the right side of his mouth. What bothered him more was the fact that the spot where the tooth had come out didn’t feel empty.

Nelson looked down at the tooth in his hand. It looked whole and didn’t seem chipped or damaged, so he couldn’t be feeling broken remains that were left behind.

Dropping the tooth on his desk, Nelson all but _sprinted_ to the office bathrooms. He nearly stumbled outside the men’s room, but caught himself and hurried inside. He darted to the mirror hung over the sinks; he needed to see this. Not just feel it.

Hands shaking, Nelson hooked a finger into the corner of his mouth and pulled his lips back until he could see the space in question.

The molar was gone, and it looked like there was a new tooth growing in. One that definitely _wasn’t_ a molar.

But that couldn’t be possible; Nelson was too old to be growing new teeth. And he was pretty sure he wasn’t old enough to be losing his adult teeth yet. That couldn’t be possible.

Except there was a very _real_ tooth lying on his office desk that said otherwise.

He rubbed a finger over the surprisingly sharp that was, apparently, growing in.

_I guess it’s a good thing I hadn’t made that dentist’s appointment yet. I don’t think I could ever explain this._ He thought dazedly, still rubbing a finger over the strange tooth. _Is-is_ this _why my teeth have been hurting? Because I’m growing a bunch of new teeth?_

His heart froze at the thought. It seemed like a worryingly plausible idea.

But why? Why was he growing new teeth? How was it happening? And why was it happening _now?!_

He gripped the sink to steady himself. The cold, smooth surface under his hands helped steady his racing mind and cooled his aching hands. He couldn’t panic, panicking as a bad idea and could make him do something stupid.

“Okay, Nelson. Calm down; you’re okay. Everything’s okay. It’s just a tooth, one tooth. It’s come out, and it looks like a new one is growing in. Nothing to get frantic about.” Nelson muttered to himself, rubbing a hand over his head. “You just- you just need to calm down and think this through. Think of what to do about this.”

He couldn’t speak up about this; he needed to keep it to himself just until he could figure out what was going on.

There was no way he could explain the teeth-thing to his dentist. Not without the man thinking Nelson was trying to prank him (not that the agent ever would) or that he was crazy.

No, it was best if he kept quiet until he could come up with some explanation. And maybe confirm it was just one tooth and not _all_ of them.

He would be okay. He just needed to be calm about all of this. If he stayed quiet, everything would be fine.

At least, that was the chant he kept in his head as he returned to his desk and bagged up the tooth to bring home with him.

As the week went on, at least one of his worries had proven right.

More teeth began falling out, from back to front — each one revealing a new, almost fang-like tooth growing in its place. Nelson started to tighten his smiles, letting his teeth show less and less as the new teeth made their way closer to the front of his mouth.

He started noticing other changes too.

His fingers, specifically his nails, didn’t look right anymore either. They seemed thicker, and were changing shape _ever so slightly_ from how he remembered them. He’d never paid a great deal of attention to his nails, beyond keeping them from splitting or chipping in ways that would hurt.

Except, now that his teeth were changing for reasons he didn’t know or understand, he found himself becoming hyper-aware of his body.

(He hadn’t felt this aware of his body since puberty, which was its own brand of internal terror.)

He’d gotten some help from one of his female coworkers, who’d given him a nail file when he mentioned that his nails were bothering him. She seemed to think he was having problems with splits catching on things. He had no plans of correcting her, but it wasn’t the root of the problem.

No, the problem was that his nails seemed less like nails and more like _claws._ Humans weren’t supposed to have claws. They could have nails that _looked_ like claws if they got them specifically manicured that way. And Nelson had _never_ done anything like that.

The man had _no idea_ what was happening to his body, and it _terrified_ him.

The anxiety was worse when he realized he could find a trend to the changes he was going through.

They were all in spots that had started with an ache that became progressively worse as time went on. And he remembered one _other_ part of his body where he’d been feeling pain.

The lowest part of his back, close to his tailbone.

(Maybe even _at_ his tailbone? He didn’t know exactly where that was on his body.)

He had no explanation for what was going on with him, but there was something that made him wonder.

Every time his mind wandered back to his assignment in Scoggins, he remembered the way his aches spiked into pain whenever he’d encountered the Hidden People.

Was there a connection of some kind? He knew it had started before he went there, but the way it seemed to _accelerate_ while he was there.

It seemed like a crazy idea, but everything about Scoggins had been insane (and he appeared to be _transforming_ ), so it seemed like anything was possible at this point.

That left Nelson with few options.

He wanted, no, _needed_ to find out what was going on and there was only one place he could go that seemed to have an answer.

The agent gathered up his supplies, submitted a request for vacation time, and headed back out, back to Scoggins, Minnesota.

When he arrived, he found the town just as still and unsettling as his first visit.

He felt terrible for poor Martha. It was clear the worry and stress were getting to her. He’d had to be very careful and persuasive to convince the woman to let him have a room there again, but he’d managed.

Once he was settled and finally had the chance to start combing the town for information, he learned about the disappearances from Darryl, who was hanging posters of his missing brother, Darrel. About how often and how many there had been over the years. To the point where the residents were barely phased by it anymore. Something that was incredibly worrying in its own right.

Nelson threw himself into his self-appointed investigation and ignoring every spike of pain that hit him on the way.

(But he remembered it. Every surge of pain that shot down his spine. Each one, coupled with the silent prayer that whatever was happening would wait _just a bit longer_ before actually taking effect.)

That visit had been a whirlwind investigation and discovery, shock and fear, and danger and pain.

He’d met a few new people, agreed to help Glori get her husband back, broken into the Sheriff’s office to get more information, and met a fellow puzzle enthusiast. (Who was- Not crazy but most definitely misinformed. If he was polite). He’d had his investigation crashed by fellow FBI agents, was made temporarily mad by the Hidden People, fought the other agents, was his by an insanity-inducing raygun, and destroyed said ray.

Nelson had come out on top; He’d found the missing Issac Danvers, destroyed the Lunacy Ray, and helped the Hidden People finally return home.

And was mildly traumatized by everything and reasonably sure he wasn’t going to have his job for much longer.

He dragged his tired, slightly frostbitten body back to his hotel.

But he knew that once he got back to work, or at least back to his office, there was a chance he wouldn’t have a job anymore. If he was _lucky._ If he wasn’t, well, there would be a decently comfortable jail cell waiting for him.

But there, safe in his hotel room, having solved his case with no more mysteries dogging his mind, Nelson could _rest._ He could finally let go of the stress and tenseness that had sunk its claws into him the entire time he’d been in Scoggins. He could finally let himself _relax._

And the wall hit him.

It was a sudden, blindside of pain that brought Nelson to his knees. It cut his perception to his body alone, leaving him on his hands and knees on the floor, gasping for breath. He coughed and wheezed, fighting to get his lungs back to their average pace. (Had he screamed? He didn’t think he’d screamed.)

_What-what was_ that?! _That wasn’t like anything I’ve felt before._ Nelson thought in a pained daze. He vaguely registered something behind him move. Looking back, he felt his brain stalled.

That was a tail. A dark brown, fur-covered tail. A tail that looked like it was attached to him.

Stunned, he reached behind himself and rubbed a hand down his back, confirming that the tail was very real, and very much attached to him.

Laying on the floor of his room, all Nelson could think was that he was glad he’d asked for two weeks of vacation when he’d first set out. So, whether or not he still had a job, no one was expecting him back for a while.

And he needed all the time he could get to deal with this.

**Author's Note:**

> And that’s the end! I hope this came out well, and that you all like it. Feel free to leave comments or even give your own two cents on it.


End file.
